brenda m michelson
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bmichelson.bsky.social
brenda m michelson
@bmichelson.bsky.social
I have so many questions…

(technology architect (first career)), occasional writer, from away mainer).

brendamichelson.com
You know it’s winter in Maine when you’re mesmerized watching an 18 wheeler try (again and again) to free itself from a hammerhead that is edged by dropoff ditches.
December 18, 2025 at 4:58 PM
December 16, 2025 at 2:07 PM
yesterday’s writing. today’s trash.

but, there *was* writing. progress.
December 15, 2025 at 11:46 AM
the great thing about deciding to write again is the procrastination induced house cleaning…
December 10, 2025 at 5:59 PM
We are here, again.
March 16, 2025 at 5:26 PM
It’d be helpful if the Democratic Party did more than ask for money…
March 6, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by brenda m michelson
The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers www.microsoft.com/en-us/resear...

using genAI reduces a person’s cognitive efforts and critical thinking, findings from Microsoft Research
March 5, 2025 at 8:06 PM
… the threat IS from within now. self-fulfilling…
March 4, 2025 at 2:44 PM
“Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power…”

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
January 15, 2025 at 9:18 PM
December 17, 2024 at 5:02 PM
annual tour of neglected (abandoned?) writing projects…
December 11, 2024 at 6:01 PM
It’s not just me then: apnews.com/article/oxfo... How to sum up 2024? The Oxford University Press word of the year is 'brain rot'
How to sum up 2024? The Oxford University Press word of the year is 'brain rot'
Oxford University Press has named “brain rot” its word of the year. It's defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state,” especially from consuming too much low-grad...
apnews.com
December 2, 2024 at 2:23 PM
May 3, 2024 at 1:37 PM
“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.”

- Buckminster Fuller

(I’m looping back around, in a squiggle fashion)
January 23, 2024 at 8:43 PM
What if instead of banning books, we made reading mandatory…
January 17, 2024 at 3:52 PM
Over curated, under informed feeling.
December 1, 2023 at 1:06 PM
Better prompt, better answers.

Watch the video, it’s in front of paywall.

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/talk...
Talking to Chatbots Is Now a $200K Job. So I Applied.
Welcome to the world of prompt engineering, where you’re paid to get the best answers from AI
www.wsj.com
November 30, 2023 at 3:27 PM
the downside of books everywhere is that notes are everywhere.

now in scatter-gather writing phase. (and the dog isn’t as helpful as he believes).
November 22, 2023 at 2:57 PM
Dewey is in charge of mornings. Steps over word count.
November 19, 2023 at 3:56 PM
deleted all things X today. feel lighter.
November 17, 2023 at 11:15 PM
First signs on writing season.
November 9, 2023 at 3:35 PM
“They [tech bros] say that the chatbots are “hallucinating” when they give the wrong answer to a query. The machines are not hallucinating. They’re machine-splaining…”

www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Jeanette Winterson Has No Idea What Happens Next
The author and former enfant terrible on life after death, breaking the rules, and forging a self through fiction.
www.newyorker.com
October 29, 2023 at 2:57 PM
“… there’s another layer of responsibility, writing on a thin sheet of tree and hoping the words are worth it.”

“Such a thought could make a person set down her pen.”

- Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, p 152

🌳📝
October 25, 2023 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by brenda m michelson
This is the longer version of the thing I was trying to say, which still is by no means everything I have to say in any direction. Do not try to infer or assume based on what I haven't said.You can ask me questions if you'd like to know. I will answer if I have the energy and am in the mood.
a lot of things are true.
the refusal to grasp this is a non-trivial amount of the problem
open.substack.com
October 13, 2023 at 3:29 AM